Page 50 - 07 Luther's Separation from Rome

society. A great work of reform was needed.

The complicated and expensive

arrangements to restrain and punish crime

would be unnecessary if men but

acknowledged and obeyed the requirements

of God and the dictates of an enlightened

conscience. He saw that Luther was laboring

to secure this object, and he secretly rejoiced

that a better influence was making itself felt

in the church.

He saw also that as a professor in the

university Luther was eminently successful.

Only a year had passed since the Reformer

posted his theses on the castle church, yet

there was already a great falling off in the

number of pilgrims that visited the church at

the festival of All Saints. Rome had been

deprived of worshipers and offerings, but

their place was filled by another class, who